Abattoir workers ‘tortured and killed two men before laying them out like butchered pigs'

Jimmy Nsubuga
Updated ·3 min read
Victim Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27, was in the
Victim Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27, was in the "wrong place at the wrong time" when he was killed, the jury heard. (SWNS)

Two abattoir workers tortured and stabbed two men to death before mutilating their bodies and laying them out like "butchered pigs", a court heard.

Ionut-Valentin Boboc, 22, and Jacob-Bebe Chers, 46, have gone on trial at Bristol Crown Court accused of the double murder of Denzil McKenzie, 56, and Fahad Hossain Pramanik, 27, in September last year,

The victims were stabbed multiple times - with some injuries resembling how animals are butchered in an abattoir, the jury was told.

McKenzie and Pramanik’s partially cut up and exposed remains, were then “laid up” in a “macabre” display in a house, prosecutors said.

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A general view of the mirrored sign outside Bristol Crown Court, Small Street, Bristol.
The trial is being held at Bristol Crown Court. (PA)

The court heard that Boboc, who was 21 and his co-defendant Chers, aged 45 at the time, were friends who worked together at an abattoir just outside of Bristol on the production line.

Prosecutor Mr Stephen Dent KC said on the evening of 11 September last year, the two defendants visited the home of Mr McKenzie in Easton in Bristol, who was known to both of them.

Mr Dent said messages showed Boboc had regularly borrowed money from Mr McKenzie sometimes in return for sexual favours, and he “tricked” his way in on the night of the killings.

He said: "He (Bobic) was repeatedly was asking for money and agreeing to sexual services (in exchange) but expressing he felt conflicted about this and making threats of violence to Mr McKenzie."

The second victim Mr Pramanik was simply in the "wrong place at the wrong time", the jury heard.

While inside, Mr Dent said the defendants "jointly" inflicted multiple stab wounds.

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Mr Dent told the jury: "Both men had been stabbed repeatedly while trying to defend themselves.

"Denzil McKenzie had 23 knife wounds - the most serious of these to his neck - and there were signs he had been tortured by the infliction of severe pain with cuts around his eye, on his eyeball and a cut on his big toenail.

"Mr Pramanik was stabbed at least three times in the back and abdomen.

He added: "They inflicted further injuries on Mr Pramanik after his death. He had been dismembered in a gruesome echo of the butchering the defendants carried out in the abattoir on pigs."

Mr Dent said the defendants went to "great lengths" to cover up the evidence trail, including wiping blood off walls and cleaning up other surfaces.

The jury was shown CCTV footage of Boboc and Chers walking towards the address at 8.30pm on the night of the killings, and then coming back the same way at around 11pm allegedly carrying stolen property.

Mr Dent added: "At the time they were killed the only other people in the house were these two defendants.”

He told the court Boboc, went home, spoke to his family, and told them he and Chers had killed two men.

He said his family initially thought he was joking but became concerned and phoned police the next day who went to the property and found the mutilated bodies.

The prosecutor said the defendants then tried to get rid of the knife and clothing and were subsequently arrested.

The prosecution case is that they carried out the killing jointly.

Boboc, of Hillfields, Bristol, has admitted the murder of Mr McKenzie but denies killing Mr Pramanik, while Chers, also of Hillfields, denies both murders.

The trial continues.